Wales psychologist Mitchell leaves to join England

WALES psychologist Dr Ian Mitchell has left his role to join the Football Association.

TGG understands that new Wales boss Ryan Giggs had been keen to retain the former Swansea City man, but was unable to persuade him to stay.

Mitchell takes up the role of “senior people and team development professional” with the FA, “working with players and coaches across all England teams with a particular emphasis on learning and research”.

He said: “I feel both privileged and excited to be joining the The FA at the current time and I’m looking forward to this opportunity.

“I am very passionate about developing people and teams and this role will allow me to contribute to a programme that underpins sustainable high performance across all England teams.”

Mitchell was a key member of Chris Coleman’s staff at Euro 2016, when they reached the semi-finals. Prior to this he was performance psychologist for Swansea City between 2014 and 2016 and also held senior roles during 17 years with Cardiff Metropolitan University.

Giggs is still yet to finalise his backroom team for Wales. The FAW made an approach to Manchester United to take their highly-respected Head of Performance Tony Strudwick on a part-time basis earlier this month, but this was rejected.

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